This year's garden winners

Published 1:49 pm, Thursday, January 17, 2013

THE FRUIT of ?Jasper? Tomato ripens and stays on the vine until picked.

THE FRUIT of ?Jasper? Tomato ripens and stays on the vine until picked.

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THE ?HARVEST MOON? Watermelon grows to 18-20 pounds and is seedless.

THE ?HARVEST MOON? Watermelon grows to 18-20 pounds and is seedless.

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This year's garden winners

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It's become tradition that come January we grab our coffee and chat about the All American Selections (AAS) for the upcoming gardening season. These are vegetables and annuals that have been "Tested Nationally and Proven Locally" by AAS judges, so you are assured only the very best garden performers take home this coveted crown. They are available immediately through online seed houses and come spring at your neighborhood garden center. So without further adieu, may I introduce to you this year's vegetable winners:

Melemon melon

The crispness of each bite, the blending of a sweet-tart taste, early ripeness, "personal-sized" fruit and high yield of this melon earn this one bragging rights, along with its award-winning cousin the "Santa Claus" melon.

Melemon is easy to grow; the seed can be sown indoors four weeks before the last frost or sown directly into the garden after all danger of frost has passed. Look for them to mature 75 days from transplanting or 90 days from direct sowing.

As with all melons, prepare the soil by mixing in generous amounts of organic matter, which in turn will not only help with soil drainage but do wonders for providing a slow feed of tasty, plant-friendly nutrients all season long. Locate your melon patch in full sun. Give each plant plenty of room to roam, and don't forget to mulch around the base with straw, shredded leaves or compost, to help keep the soil evenly moist all season long.

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Easily identified when ripe, their dark green skin will turn a telltale chartreuse green when it's time to harvest. These personal-sized melons grow to about 6 inches in diameter, weigh about 4½ pounds each and will store up to one month after harvesting.

'Jasper' tomato

Ah ... sweet-tasting, heavy-yielding, crack resistant, early, late and fusarium blight-resistant, pop-in-your-mouth, cherry-sized tomatoes are the only words to describe this AAS celebrity; tasting is believing. If you've ever grown grape or cherry tomatoes and missed a day of picking, only to find the ripe ones sprawled on the ground, fear not: The fruit of Jasper ripens and stays on the vine until picked.

Plant in full sun, in organically rich soil and mulch the plants to conserve soil moisture in the heat of the summer. This tomato gets its high yield rating from its indeterminate growth habit, which simply means it continually sets flowers and forms fruit all season long or for an indeterminate amount of time! For best harvesting, try to keep them picked. so the plant's energy goes to producing even more tomatoes.

Sow seeds indoors five to six weeks before your expected last frost and look for tomatoes roughly 60 days after transplanting.

Watermelon 'Harvest Moon'

Oh this watermelon is not only sweet, sweet, sweet in taste; its vines are semi-space savers spreading out 5 feet to the max. Its melons weigh in at 18 to 20 pounds, while their overall length is around 14 inches. And this watermelon is seedless! It is the very first seedless watermelon to achieve the AAS crown.

There is a little drawback; seedless watermelons are a bit more demanding to get to germinate than the old-fashioned seeded varieties. Sow indoors about four to five weeks before the last frost in a good seed starting mix. Here's the trick: They need warmth, 85 to 90 degrees for best germination. You'll want to consider heating cables underneath and a plastic covering over the top to simulate a greenhouse effect. Once germinated, remove the cover. Keep the cables warm until the first set of leaves appear.

It's highly recommended they be sown directly in peat pots or jiffy pots, so minimal root disturbance will occur when transplanting. Transplant into yet another sunny location with organically fertile soil (few vegetables tolerate part sun to shade conditions). Mulch with straw, compost or weed mat to help conserve moisture and keep the fruit from sitting directly on top of the soil. During wet summers, direct soil contact often results in the bottom rotting.

Note: Every Harvest Moon seed packet contains what are called "pollinator" seeds; this is necessary, since seedless varieties are "triploid," a fancy name for a variation in the number of chromosomes that result after fertilization. Bottom line, plant all packaged seeds. I f purchasing transplants, ask the associate at the garden center for a good pollinator; ''Sugar Daddy'' is often recommended for our area. It sounds complicated, but it really isn't. Just know they require a proper pollinating variety, so just ask; the bees will do the rest.

Harvest when the vine can be easily separated from the melon with your thumb. Chill and eat while sitting under the shade of the old oak tree.